HIV & AIDS

This document was initiated by the Department of Health, and applies to the period 2000-2005. It is a broad national strategic plan designed to guide the country’s response as a whole tothe epidemic. It is not a plan for the health sector specifically, but a statement of intent for the country as a whole, both within and outside government. The plan has sinece been updated, with a new document covering 2005-2010.

The broad argument made in global and local discourse about microbicides centers around the concept of "female control" over HIV prevention via virginal inserted microbicides. This argument positions women as subordinate to men in sexual choice-making and in decision making about HIV prevention during sex- particularly a lack of control over choosing to use a male condom.

Whilst the argument of gender power imbalances maybe supported through research, it does not allow that the factor inherent in female disempowerment over sexual choice-making and HIV prevention are readily addressed by microbicides technology.

Although caring for children orphaned by AIDS is increasingly acknowledged as a priority area for HIV/AIDS and development programs, there is limited knowledge on caregivers. Rapidly growing numbers of children orphaned by AIDS warrants increased attention from researchers, policy makers, and program planners. This paper explores dominant theoretical and policy paradigms of care for children orphaned by AIDS. Then, drawing from an analysis of interviews with staff at nongovernmental organizations and community based organizations, and focus groups with caregivers gathered during fieldwork conducted between July 10 and September 8, 2006 in KwaZulu-Natal Province, Republic of South Africa, this paper contrasts local understandings of childcare with theoretical and policy notions of care. Findings from this qualitative study suggest that childcare practices are more diverse and complex than those currently recognized within existing theoretical and policy formulations. Such findings lead to the conclusion that current policy approaches towards care for children orphaned by AIDS face a potentially detrimental disconnect with local realities of care. Re-formulating policies to take into account how local practices of childcare are shifting in dynamic ways in response to the pandemic will be essential for the formulation of effective policies and programs.

The Southern African HIV and AIDS and Gender Baseline Study is the most extensive study of its kind ever to be undertaken in the region. A corner stone of the Media Action Plan (MAP) on HIV and AIDS and Gender, the baseline study involved monitoring 37 000 news items in eleven countries of Southern Africa for a one month period. Among the wealth of information generated by this study is the fact that HIV and AIDS constitutes only 3% of total coverage in the region and that People with HIV comprise a mere 5% of news sources on the topic. The baseline study, conducted by the Media Monitoring Project (MMP) that leads the monitoring and evaluation leg of MAP, and Gender Links, responsible for the policy sub-sector of MAP, provides a key rationale for an ambitious programme to assist media houses in developing HIV and AIDS and Gender policies. MAP is led by the Southern African Editors Forum.

Amidst South Africa's escalating epidemic, its rapid social, economic and political transition, and the changing roles of the state, civil society and international actors, there emerge a multitude of complex and yet unanswered questions. My doctoral research, the larger backdrop for this scoping study, focuses on one such area: little is known about the dynamics of community-level mobilisation, nor about the interface between these groups and national and international bodies. This report investigates, in a preliminary way, one component within this - what is happening within South African ‘communities' and why?
Social mobilisation is a growing theme among AIDS researchers in southern Africa. Indeed, as we become increasingly weary of attempts to measure and predict ‘impact' (which could mean anything from macro-economic effects to psychological traumas), and as the promise of technological interventions (such as circumcision, microbicides and vaccines) inevitably begins to wane, some researchers are increasingly shifting their gaze to learn from what those most affected are doing every day to respond to HIV/ AIDS - a shift in focus from formulaic or sequential views of impact to understanding differentiated, creative, and perhaps unpredictable collective responses.

A new study may help put to rest fears that pregnancy accelerates progression to full-blown AIDS in women with HIV receiving antiretroviral therapy. The study, published in the October 1st issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases and now available online, revealed that pregnancy may, in fact, slow disease progression in these women.

More than one-sixth of Mozambique's 9 000 teachers are dying of HIV/Aids each year, lowering the quality of education and jeopardising future development, a government official told Reuters on Tuesday.Education and Culture Minister Aires Aly said in an interview that the pandemic had become a national emergency, eroding a critical human resource that is key to the poor Southern African nation's economic development. "We are losing 17% of our 9 000 teachers each year, which means we are talking of 1 360 workers lost to HIV/Aids, and the disease is spreading very fast at national level", he said.

The Kenyan government has embarked on an ambitious national programme to fast track the national rollout of male circumcision as a means of preventing HIV. Results from three randomised controlled trials in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda, in 2006 showed that following circumcision, the incidence of HIV infection was reduced in men by more than half. According to the new policy document, circumcision will be rolled out for males of all ages in a culturally sensitive way and in a clinically safe setting. The programme will involve some strengthening of the health infrastructure, but according to Peter Mutie, head of communications at the National AIDS Control Council (NACC), the existing health centres are sufficiently equipped for the rollout.

United Nations (UN) Special Envoy on AIDS in Africa, Elizabeth Mataka has challenged women to break the silence and stand up against harmful practices that have been perpetrating the spread of HIV/AIDS. Mrs Mataka said this in Lusaka yesterday as Zambia joined the rest of the world in launching the International Day Against Women violence and the first day of 16 days of Activism Against Gender Violence.